March 31, 2022

1,400 Woodinville units, plus lots of retail, planned for Molbak's property

Photo by Molbak’s Garden + Home [enlarge]

The 66-year-old family business remains a beloved local institution.

On this rough map of what Green Partners owns, GGLO indicates about a dozen future buildings north of the panhandle extending to 171st.

Molbak's Garden + Home has been in Woodinville since 1956, and it isn't going away. However, there's an ambitious new plan from the land ownership — which apparently still includes the Molbak family — to move the store into a new building with apartments on top.

That, Phase I, would have 220 units and a store with 150,000 square feet. The early plan indicates four stories over retail, with underground parking. The old retail complex would eventually be razed from its current location, though some portions might survive.

GGLO designed the plan at 13625 N.E. 175th St., which the city is now considering. It depends on a height increase for the central business district, which the city has already approved.

But the entire Gardens District, as it's called, could span over 19 acres with multiple buildings, a possible 1,400 residential units, hotel, an additional 400,000 square feet of retail, commercial and restaurant space, plus the associated parking. The project's five phases will take years, with no set schedule.

Woodinville Weekly first reported the full scope of the project, from a briefing given last month by the city manager and mayor to the Woodinville Chamber of Commerce. Those remarks are also on the city's website, where city manager Brandon Buchanan describes the project numbers above. Public records requests with the city are still pending. The city's PowerPoint presentation depicts about a dozen-odd buildings in GGLO's master plan.

Green Partners declined to answer specific questions from the DJC, and said more details might be disclosed in May.

Back in 2008, as the Great Recession was affecting its business, the Molbak family sold much of its land for over $16 million to Green Partners LLC. That entity is associated with BMGI Group, aka Bill & Melinda Gates Investments, aka Cascade Investment, the Kirkland-based family office for the Gates clan.

Green Partners last year initiated the application for a height increase in the city core, which includes the Molbak's property.

The Gardens District, on whatever schedule it advances, will continue the city's recent midrise apartment boom. The nearby Schoolhouse District and Woodin Creek Village have together added — or will soon add — some 1,330 rental units to downtown. Other, smaller townhouse projects are also in the works.

City Manager Buchanan said, in his state of the city remarks, that about 1,600 units were done or in the pipeline, using a five-year timeframe. That excludes the Gardens District ahead. New retail, much of it wine-related, has accompanied the big new developments downtown. And more is coming.